Croatian PM: “Big Investments Next Year”

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, talking in a live TV interview with HRT, said that his main task as leader of the nation, is to find jobs for the 310,000 Croatian citizens who are out of work.

Milanovic expected things to get better next year, and says that a range of large-scale investment into Croatia would be realised. He says deals will be done in infrastructure such as the railways and ports, but also in the field of energy. He believes that it will not be significant enough to get Croatia out of the huge debt it currently faces though.

Milanovic also had a message for protest leaders. Around 10,000 teachers and nurses protested in downtown Zagreb on Thursday against the government’s austerity policies and cuts for employees in education and health.

“We live on credit, this is not austerity, this is a fiscal adjustment,” said Milanovic, calling on the protest leaders “to articulate where cutbacks should be made”, wondering whether it should be done by reducing farm subsidies, social benefits or veterans’ pensions.